Economics Grad Mike Jones Receives Keller Award

Mike Jones, a graduate of the Economics Graduate Program, recently received the Keller Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Jones, who graduated from NC State in 2020, was also nominated for the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Outstanding Dissertation and Carlson Award for his thesis, “Essays on the Economics of Novel Agricultural Biotechnologies.”

The dissertation is composed of four essays in which Jones and his advisors, Rod Rejesus and Zack Brown, conducted an economic examination of the impacts of new types of agricultural biotechnology on markets and production systems. Associate dean and director of the N.C. Agricultural Research Service, Steve Lommel, noted that “Dr. Jones’s excellence in research stands out clearly and reflects well on him, his advisors, and our college.”

Jones will be recognized at the virtual CALS Honors Celebration on April 29, 2021.

More About the Keller Award

After Dr. Kenneth Keller’s retirement from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) in 1979, faculty, friends, and industry established the Kenneth R. Keller Research Award Endowment in the Agricultural Foundation of North Carolina State University to honor his work for the University and North Carolina’s agricultural development. The income from this endowment is used to recognize excellence in doctoral dissertation research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Each department and interdepartmental graduate program offering the Ph.D. degree in CALS is eligible to nominate one individual from among their Ph.D. graduates or candidates who completed his or her thesis defense examination between January 1 and December 31 of that current year. Evaluations will be based on the quality of the work as presented in the thesis without prejudice to discipline within the college.